User reviews

This is wonderful in its own way. An alien has landed in the moors of Scotland and an American reporter comes to visit at the behest of an astronomer who has noticed a planet heading for the Earth. In the mix is a genius scientist who has a few loose screws, played by William Schallert (remember him as Dobie Gillis's teacher and Patty Duke's father, among others). One night the daughter of the scientist is coming back from town when she encounters a space ship. Upon investigating, she sees a face in the window of the ship which terrifies her. The rest of the movie involves a series of efforts to connect with the alien (who is about as unconvincing as is humanly possible). He has no facial movements and a single expression, as if he is paralyzed. They befriend him but Schallert soon screws things up by cutting off the air supply to the poor guy. Schallert seems to think that somehow this creature will make him rich and famous, though we're never sure how that is going to happen. This guy is connected to the planet that is going to launch a full scale invasion. The reporter goes to the local authorities. People have been disappearing and there is a lot of tension. The constable, who looks like he won second place in a Rod Steiger look-alike contest helps out. He is by far the best actor and the most believable character in the movie. All activities from this point on are at best bewildering, but it doesn't matter. Made on a shoestring budget, it's very nice entertainment for those who don't wish to ask any questions.

An elderly scientist has discovered that a new planet has somehow changed its orbital path and will soon come dangerously close to the Earth. An American reporter goes to the northern most reaches of Scotland to meet with this professor in hopes that he can tell the world of his findings. Upon arrival he meets the young, beautiful daughter that he knew previously as a gawky child and a Dr. Mears, a scientist that should have been jailed for some past crimes but somehow was not convicted and was staying at the Professor's castle because of their former relationship as teacher and pupil. It is with this exposition that famed B director Edgar G. Ulmer then sends an alien in a small, weird-looking spaceship to this area for the purpose of scouting out another place for his/its own kind. Well, the story takes some interesting, some obvious steps in terms of fleshing out the story, but when the end result is viewed - one should be impressed with several things. First of all, the budget for this film was incredibly small. Ulmer rented out the old sets from Joan of Arc and then transformed them into the castle and Scottish bogs. They are convincing thanks to his heavy use of fog machines. The fog swirls and floats throughout. His special effects are not that bad either for the budget. The alien created looks surprisingly eerie in the fog as it looks through its glass helmet with those glazed, cold, blank eyes. But Ulmer does more than just create an alien that terrifies a region. Ulmer gives the alien a bit of soul. He ends up being a menace, but a question arises that would he have been that same menace if an evil human being had not been involved in trying to communicate with him. Ulmer leaves the answer to you - and it is a stylish, almost profound thing to do in a film like this. Make no mistake, The Man from Planet X is a B picture all the way, but it is a quality B picture with solid, innovative direction, haunting images, good acting from Robert Clarke as the lead, Margaret Field(Sally Field's mom) as the love-interest/daughter, and good-old William Schallert as the conniving Dr. Mears. My favourite performance though is by Roy Engel as a Scottish policeman. He can chew up some scenery!

One of the five sci-fi's I remember every single detail of from my earliest days as a fan. For the genre, I think it's considerably above average. The moor is nicely atmospheric. There's one of every character in the book: the good guy, the bad guy, the local sheriff, the lovely damsel, her father the old professor, etc. The scene where we're looking for the first time through the window of the ship and the visitor peeks out from the other side is easily as good as the three-fingered-hand-on-the-shoulder in War of the Worlds. Nice "character" to the visitor, for whom, like Karloff's Frankenstein, we end up feeling some empathy .

The reporter John Lawrence (Robert Clarke) visits Dr. Robert Blane (Gilbert Fallman) and learns that his friend, Prof. Elliot (Raymond Bond) has discovered a new planet that is in route toward Earth and has moved to an observatory on the Burry Island to observe from a closer location. John heads to the Scottish island and is welcomed by Prof. Elliot's daughter Enid Elliot (Margaret Field), who is now a beautiful young woman. They go to the observatory to meet Prof. Elliot and John finds Dr. Mears (William Schallert), who is his disaffection. When Enid returns home after driving John to an inn in the town, she has a flat tire and finds a spacecraft landed on the island with a weird alien inside that follows her home. While Prof. Elliot and John want to investigate the reason why the alien landed on Earth, Dr. Mears has second thoughts. What are the true intentions of the extraterrestrial being?

"The Man from Planet X" is a campy and lame sci-fi in black and white, but also a cult for fans (like me) of sci-fi from the 50's. The story of a close encounter with an alien is from the same year of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" that is a classic. The open end, where the true intention of the extraterrestrial being is not disclosed, is excellent. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem do Planeta X" ("The Man From Planet X")

Note: On 23 February 2024, I saw this film again.

Margaret Field, who died a month ago, appeared in some movies in the '40s and '50s, but then decided to concentrate on raising her family. Her daughter later became famous as a surfer girl, a flying nun, and a two-time Oscar-winning actress.

One of the elder Field's movies was this quirky sci-fi outing from the early '50s. "The Man from Planet X" focuses on an alien who lands on a Scottish island while his planet is passing ours. While some of the scientists want to communicate with this new guest, one has less than noble intentions. Ridiculous though it may be, the movie is very enjoyable in every way. It's just fun to see an alien who looks like something from an Eastern European stop-motion cartoon.

So, it shall go down in history that Sally Field's mother had an encounter with an extraterrestrial. Pretty neat. As for Planet X, I recall that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig tried to colonize it but had to contend with Marvin the Martian.

This film certainly WON'T rank up there with the great sci-fi films of the 1950s. And, while it isn't a bad film (like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE), it certainly doesn't have a whole lot to offer or to set it apart.

Planet X apparently has somehow left its orbit and is heading towards Earth. At the same time, a space craft from this planet lands in Britain and is piloted by a guy dressed up in a space suit with a huge papier mache head! He's supposed to be an alien, but his head shows no movement at all and looks pretty silly. And, oddly, by the time the film is over, you really have no idea whether or not his intentions were hostile! The acting was okay, though oddly, aside from the locals, the major characters in the film who were Brits sounded exactly like Americans! They didn't even try to approximate the correct accent. This combined with only adequate production values and a pretty turgid script mean this film is very skip-able unless you are a big fan of 1950s sci-fi.

As a mysterious planet hurls itself toward earth, an enigmatic extraterrestrial scout arrives on a remote Scottish island with unknown intentions.

Edgar Ulmer is not a well-known director. Horror fans may know his "Black Cat", and science fiction fans may know him for this film. But, largely, I think he has been forgotten. And that is a shame because these two films alone make for a solid legacy.

Ulmer did set design for Max Reinhardt's theater, served his apprenticeship with F. W. Murnau, and worked with directors including Robert Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann and cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan. His work is forgotten but he was a crucial piece of the early German-American film.

Sure, "Planet X" is cheesy. Yes, the camera likes to sit behind trees, and it is odd how Dr. Mears is able to walk five feet behind others without being noticed. And sure, they barely spent a penny by re0using the sets of other films. And yes, yes, the Scottish constable is a silly ethnic stereotype. All these things are true. But that is the charm.

This film excels because it embraces its cheese and runs with it. Could planets really come that close to earth? Obviously not. And no film would attempt that stunt today. But this was an era when science did not need to be in science fiction to be good. The world was less cynical and more relaxed. Enjoy!

"The Man from Planet X" is routine overall, but it has a reasonably interesting concept - that of a wandering planet that has left its orbit - and has enough heavy atmosphere to make it an entertaining view. Said planet will come closest to Earth around the area of an island off the Scottish coast. Soon the locals realize that a representative of an alien intelligence has landed. The amusing looking creature seems to be harmless at first, but when ambitious and greedy scientist Dr. Mears (the solid veteran character actor William Schallert) starts bullying the creature into giving him information, it changes its mind and gets hostile, turning Mears and others into zombie slaves. It's up to intrepid American reporter John Lawrence (Robert Clarke) to figure out a way to stop an invasion from taking place, and to get word to the authorities.

B movie perennials Clarke and director Edgar G. Ulmer are in fine form here; Ulmer did a fine job of working his way around the low, low budgets of his films. Here he has the crew add fog to the sets of the Ingrid Bergman film "Joan of Arc" to create an eerie feel. There's a minimum of characters until the climax when citizens are mobilized against the menace; until then there's a rather intimate feel to the proceedings, and the pacing is deliberate, with a focus on mood and feel rather than action.

The acting is sincere from all concerned, with Clarke a likable, low key leading man, and lovely Margaret Field (mother of Sally Field) an appealing leading lady. Schallert is malevolent fun as the self centered Mears; other nice characterizations are by Raymond Bond as eminent scientist Professor Elliot and Roy Engel as Tommy the Constable. Clocking in at a trim 71 minutes, "The Man from Planet X", written and produced by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen, is a good if not great little film worth a look for genre buffs.

Seven out of 10.

Between the accents and the silly special effects this movie provides some excellent B-movie laughs. The character Enid's accent makes her about as British as Barbara Bush. But she makes excellent tea and knows that pharmacists in Britain are called chemists, so it's OK. She provides the love interest to the movie's hero, an American journalist and Bogart wannabe. By contrast, the local constable's over-the-top Scottish accent and dialect makes one wonder if any moment he'll blurt out, "Professor, the engines kanna take no more! They're gonna blow!" Meanwhile, there's a plot involving a planet careening toward Earth and an alien in a diving mask who can't keep his air pressure regulated and lets himself get beat up by the wormiest guy in the movie.

Best line: "Tis a fearsome visitor from another world!"

On a Mystery Science Theater 3000 cheese scale of 1 to 10, this movie is an 8.

Related trivia: Robert Clarke, the actor who plays the American journalist, appears in the 1991 stinker, "Attack from Mars," with Ann Robinson, star of the George Pal classic, "War of the Worlds". "Attack from Mars" is awful, but it proves that a paycheck is a paycheck, even in Hollywood.

If this film had come out in the mid-50's, it could be dismissed as another low-budget, silly outer space invasion movie. However this movie appears to have been the first of such space invasion movies. It opened in March of 1951. Later that year came the openings of "The Thing from Another Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Two other 1951 films, "When Worlds Collide" and "Superman and the Mole Men" have some space invader elements, but don't quite qualify for the genre.

The fact that it was shot in six days on a budget of $43,000 makes it more amazing. Compare that to "The Thing From Another World" ($1.6 million) or the "The Day The Earth Stood Still" ($1.2 million). While none of the technical aspects come near those two movies, the movie does have an interesting style and look that foreshadows the 1953 classic "Invaders From Mars" and even has elements from "Invasino of the Body Snatchers".

The movie is a little ambiguous about whether we are dealing with unfriendly (a la "The Thing")or friendly aliens (a la "The Day"). It seems a bit schizophrenic here with an alien that can be scary in one scene and downright adorable in another. Not having any prior such movies to really go by, the writers seem unsure in which direction to go.

Robert Clark is fine in the lead as a newspaper reporter. Margaret Field (Sally Field's mother) is good as the female love interest. William Schallert (Uncle Martin or Papo on "The Patty Duke Show) stands out as a surprisingly creepy scientific assistant.

What really carries the film is Edgar Ulmer's energetic direction. Ulmer ("Black Cat" "The Strange Woman" and "Detour")always keeps the viewer on their toes, inserting off-beat and unexpected material in nearly every scene.

It is a must for film history buffs and others will find it engagingly silly.

The Man from Planet X (1951)

Edgar G. Ulmer is one of those B-movie directors who has a bit of a fan club based on a couple of key films--in this case "The Black Cat" and "Detour." Both are great--unqualified, compromised, odd, vaguely daring, and vaguely cheap.

I wish I could say the same for this one. This just looks like a step, or half a step, above "Plan 9" and that ilk. The acting ebbs and flows, the props are embarrassingly cheesy, and the plot is plain old simplistic and dumb. Of course, that's giving it no credit for pushing some boundaries the way Jules Verne did in fiction, because "Planet X" is an early space film. It's set on earth, but it deals with that big one--what if an alien lands. In fact, it isn't that far off from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space," which came out 7 years later. So Ulmer is cutting edge! But wait, what about "The Day the Earth Stood Still," which for all its cheapness is totally fabulous, and came out in that same year, indeed six months earlier, in the summer of 1951? Yes, something was in the air.

There's no sense dissecting this film, but just be warned it's not a high quality flick, and as a cult flick it lacks some of the idiosyncrasies and brazen edges of a film like "Detour," which is a paradigm of great and awful B-movie ingenuity.

A shoestring budgetter directed by Edgar Ulmer. One of the first (if not the first) alien invasion films. The little alien, a child-like being with a big, solemn face, is known to Scottish villagers as 'the bogey' and strikes mortal terror into their hearts with his HypnoRay, a laserlike beam which reduces them to easily programmable zomboids. His motives are unclear throughout the film until a hypnoidal Dr. Mears 'spills the beans' near its end. Strong points: eerie atmosphere, production design; moody 'film noir' photography, engaging music score and interesting story. Weak points: muddled script(more plotholes than a Stephen King cemetry); stilted dialogue and wooden acting. Recommended only for diehard 1950s sci-fi fans(like myself)- this film is both a joy and a disappointment.

Clarke is personally a lively actor and is fully competent for 1950's sci-fi. He could have done a fine job as leading man in any such film, even big-budget prestige sci-fi.

The rest of the cast is OK. The monster is cheap but eerie and is good enough. The black and white photography, dungeon-like sets, endless fog are well done and sort of scary. The little town and townsfolk are a good example of why modern films like 1981's "American Werewolf in London" deliver fond tributes to such a setting.

The script is unnecessarily confusing but this is not really the problem. The problem is that this is slowly directed. Reluctantly must recommend you not spend your viewing time dragging through this one unless you are a dedicated 1950's sci-fi fan. However, such fans will probably find this one to be rewarding, and should give it a look.

Hey, I love cheesy Sci-FI, especially when it is more of a pseudo science fiction. This movie is just plain fun on all levels, from the sadistic Dr. who tortures the alien while communicating in geometry, a tactic still used in most educational systems. To Sally Field's mother as the damsel in distress. A solid win for the viewer, the added artistic touches like a fog machine running 24/7 for atmosphere combined with the spaceship that looks like a Christmas ornament gives the viewer a veritable cornucopia of swatches of video wallpaper that all together make one great piece of iconic kitsch.

Also what movie from the United Kingdom would be complete without an American hero saving the day with the aid of Scotland Yard? The only bummer is I was hoping we would see Sally Fields mother in the film the way she was portrayed on the poster......not a chance, and it is too bad too, I liked that image on the poster...a lot.

This is a treat for those who like primitive, cheap, early and original sci-fi films and general genre cinema: 'The Man from Planet X' is admirable in many respects but, sadly, abominable in others.

A wonderfully silly, frankly outrageous, story is given a marvelous treatment and nicely developed staging on a minor budget.

The sets, atmospherically presented and photographed, the oddball alien designs and the sound design all add good value to this film. Also aided by clipped and precise direction which extracts some movement and energy from the threadbare production budget and dreadfully written characters.

The story is a nice, different, and strangely creepy idea of an unexpected rapidly approaching planet and it's lonesome scout scuttling around on a desolate Scottish island on the edge of the British Isles. The early interactions between mankind and this invader are worth the effort to watch.

Regrettably the issue that bedevils 'The Man from Planet X' is it's characters, dialogue, acting and accents! There is almost nothing complementary to say here about any of it. Which is a shame because this little film, on a tiny budget and production, needs much better from its characters to succeed.

It doesn't get it though and the characters remain unbelievable and inexplicable whilst spouting dire dialogue in atrocious accents.

I rate a 5/10; for this film has a lot of little credits to it's name and I recommend to keen fans of 50's stuff and science fiction fans looking for an unusual effort.

A strange visitor from outer space lands on a remote Scottish island where a renowned astronomer has set up an observatory to study the mysterious Planet X, which will pass close to Earth in a few days. The astronomer, his pretty daughter, his assistant, and a visiting American reporter make contact with the alien and try to communicate with it. But things take a turn for the worse when the assistant tries to use the alien for his own ends.

The hero of the movie is played by Robert Clarke. With his pencil mustache, bomber jacket, and turtleneck, he's the definition of cool. William Schallert plays the villain. It's a different type of role than I'm used to seeing Schallert in but he plays bad very well. Margaret Field (mother of Sally) does fine as the astronomer's daughter and potential love interest for Clarke. Roy Engel is great in a small part as the constable. This is a very good, low-budget sci-fi film from the Golden Age of Sci-Fi (the 1950s). It's helped a lot by a short runtime and Edgar G. Ulmer's atmospheric direction. Most of the movie takes place at night, with lots of scenes on the fog-shrouded moors or the castle observatory. Creepy fun for fans of classic horror and sci-fi. Also, this was made back in the days when stories involving space and aliens were still filled with wonder and the fantastic, not the boring "realism" that permeates modern sci-fi. So here we have a big-headed alien in a neat-looking spacesuit traveling in an awesome rocket ship. Very entertaining for those who appreciate such things.

A planet is orbiting dangerously close to planet Earth and a mysterious spaceship has landed on the Scottish Moors...

Friend or Foe?

Breaking it down you find that The Man from Planet X is a standard sci-fi movie that would often be bettered the longer the 1950s boom of sci-fi films continued. However, this is in no way a bad thing given the guile and craft that went into making it a picture of worth.

Edgar G. Ulmer and his crew are armed with a $100 budget (exageration of course, but you understand I'm sure) and almost make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Working with old sets that were used on Joan of Arc (1948), the pic is a lesson in low budget film making of note. Ulmer brings a plethora of fog and mists to cloak the sets, while he shoots his cast in low lights and shadows to ensure his sci-fi tale never has a chance to be found out as a cheapie.

As it happens the story is decent enough. Alien visitor from a dying planet needs something, but what? He can't communicate vocally and of course the humans meeting the visitor have different agendas. There's some suspense, a little bit of nutty science, and even some sexual flirtations. All in all a good solid sci-fi picture, one that showcases the unheralded skills of its director. And not even a papier-mâché headed alien can under value that fact. 7/10

1951 was a milestone year for Sci-Fi cinema, as it saw the birth of the "Alien Invasion" movie and immediately also two landmark-titles that still stand solid today as indestructible genre classics: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The Thing from Another World". When it comes to being the absolute first alien-invasion movie, however, both these masterpieces were beaten by the modest and extremely low-budgeted "The Man from Planet X", since that one got released in the spring of '51! It's a charming and enjoyable B-movie with a cool and memorable looking alien. The American reporter John Lawrence is invited by his scientist friend Prof. John Elliott, to a remote and minuscule little island off the Scottish coast named Burry. Elliott discovered a new planet, inventively called it "X" and set up an observatory in Burry because the passing of the planet will be best seen from this island. John Lawrence is far more interested in Professor Elliot's daughter Enid, but when they romantically walk around in the Moors, they witness the landing of a peculiar spaceship and an odd-looking green visitor. Cult director Edgar G. Ulmer is notorious for accomplishing good things with minimal budgets, but he certainly did surpass himself here. "The Man from Planet X" is made on a shoestring budget, and Ulmer does whatever he can to hide it, like shrouding all the crude set-pieces and cardboard locations in thick mist or ripping off his own cast members with overdue salaries that were even less than minimum wages. But, even more remarkable than his ability to creatively camouflage budget restrictions are Ulmer's skills to nevertheless insert flashes of sheer genius and ambiguity. For example, did the stern-looking alien land on earth with malignant intentions to begin with, or did he only turn hostile after his first encounters with the typically greedy and destructive nature of earthly creatures, as demonstrated by the vicious Dr. Mears?